''Isopogon scabriusculus'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Proteaceae The Proteaceae form a family of flowering plants predominantly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere. The family comprises 83 genera with about 1,660 known species. Together with the Platanaceae and Nelumbonaceae, they make up the order Pro ...

and is endemic to southwestern Western Australia. It is a shrub with cylindrical, or narrow flat, sometimes forked leaves, and spherical to oval heads of pink or red flowers.

Description

''Isopogon scabriusculus'' is a shrub that typically grows to about high and wide, with reddish brown or greyish branchlets. The leaves are cylindrical, grooved or flat and narrow, up to long, sometimes forked with the undivided part up to long. The flowers are mostly arranged on the ends of branchlets, in sessile, spherical to oval heads up to in diameter with overlapping, egg-shaped

involucral bracts In botany, a bract is a modified or specialized leaf, especially one associated with a reproductive structure such as a flower, inflorescence axis or cone scale. Bracts are usually different from foliage leaves. They may be smaller, larger, ...

at the base. The flowers are red or pink, sometimes hairy and the fruit is a hairy nut about long, fused with others in a spherical head up to long in diameter.

Taxonomy

''Isopogon scabriusculus'' was first formally described in 1856 by Carl Meissner in de Candolle's '' Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis''. (Meissner had previously published the name ''Isopogon scabriusculus'' in 1852 but without a description.) In 1995, Donald Bruce Foreman described three subspecies of ''I. scabriusculus'' in '' Flora of Australia'' and the names are accepted at the Australian Plant Census. * ''Isopogon scabriusculus'' subsp. ''pubifloris'' Foreman is a shrub up to tall with simple, cylindrical leaves up to long, hairy pink flowers up to long from September to November, and fruiting cones up to about diameter. * ''Isopogon scabriusculus'' Meisn. subsp. ''scabriusculus'' is a shrub up to tall with flat, sometimes three-lobed leaves up to long, glabrous pink flowers up to long from July to October, and fruiting cones up to about diameter. * ''Isopogon scabriusculus'' subsp. ''stenophyllus'' Foreman is a shrub up to tall with simple, grooved leaves oval in cross-section, up to long, glabrous red or pink flowers up to long from July to October, and fruiting cones about diameter. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''scabriusculus'') means "minutely scabrous", ''pubiflorus'' means "softly hairy-flowered" and ''stenophyllus'' means "narrow-leaved".

Distribution and habitat

''Isopogon scabriusculus'' is widespread in the south-west of Western Australia where it grows on sandplains and ridges. Subspecies ''pubifloris'' grows in scrub, shrubland and woodland between Hyden, Southern Cross, Coolgardie,

Lake King Lake King is a town in the eastern Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, from Perth along State Route 40 between Kelmscott and Ravensthorpe. As of 2016, the town had a population of 95. The 2011 census recorded both the population of the tow ...

and the

Frank Hann National Park Frank Hann National Park is a national park in Western Australia, located east-southeast of the capital, Perth in the Shire of Lake Grace. It was named for Frank Hann, an early explorer of the district. The park contains a wide array of flora, ...

. Subspecies ''scabriusculus'' grows in mallee, scrub and heath between Mullewa and Newdegate and subspecies ''stenophyllus'' grows in heath and shrubland, mainly between Wubin, Southern Cross and Newdegate.

Conservation status

All three subspecies of ''I. scabriusculus'' are classified as "not threatened" by the Western Australian Government

Department of Parks and Wildlife The Department of Parks and Wildlife (DPaW) was the department of the Government of Western Australia responsible for managing lands described in the ''Conservation and Land Management Act 1984'' and implementing the state's conservation and en ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q18082509, from2=Q51054542, from3=Q51054556, from4=Q51054573 scabriusculus Eudicots of Western Australia Plants described in 1856 Taxa named by Carl Meissner